Hands off

Grover Beach

I was sad to read “Street Talk” in the May 21 issue. The question was, “Should the government require everyone to have health insurance?” It was a unanimous four for four in the “yes” response, with the two oldest respondents (a nurse and a physics professor, no less!) drawing comparisons to the requirement that a driver of a car have insurance.

Do this nurse and this physics professor know that the requirement for car insurance is only for liability coverage, so that damage from a collision caused by another party will be repaired? Do they realize that there’s no requirement for a driver to carry insurance on his own vehicle?

What if I’m a healthy 22-year-old who doesn’t want to carry health insurance? Can’t I do what I wish with my money? Why is it anyone’s business to force me to carry insurance on my own body? Why can a feminist bleat “keep your laws off my body” with respect to her right to having an abortion and be lauded for her independence (and indeed her cleverness in using such a slick slogan) but a young man who requests “keep your laws off my body” with respect to health insurance is a right-wing zealot?
The anti-liberty tendencies of many people today confound me. I realize I am likely in the minority, but I would like to believe that if one thought their argument through to its logical end, they would see the folly in implementing requirements like this on citizens “for their own good.”